Podcast Preparation

So this morning I had a meeting with Richard Hollingham, a journalist and broadcaster who presents the NERC Planet Earth Podcast. During the BORTAS campaign we will be recording an audio diary which, if my recording skills are up to it and my chat is interesting enough, will feature on the aforementioned podcast. There's a good example of the audio diaries they use in the podcast episode entitled "cuckoos at Wicken Fen, snow and radiocarbon dating". The audio diary starts around 9 minutes in.

There will be some challenges associated with recording on the plane, particularly the background noise. The aircraft cabin is pressurised so in theory it should be really quiet inside but with all the pumps that are used to draw air through the various instruments running the noise levels can actually be really high. We'll have to experiment with the best place to hold the microphone and what recording levels work best.

The audio recorder, cover and windjammer

So now I have in my possession a handheld digital audio recorder with microphone cover and windjammer, and I've been told to have a go at making recordings around the laboratory, outside and anywhere else with interesting noises. So those of you who work at University of York, beware, I might be after you for an interview....and anyone else involved in the campaign - practise being interesting so that we can get some brilliant interviews for the actual audio diary.